A story written and illustrated by Yasuki Tanaka. It’s a suspense, mystery and supernatural anime that incorporates elements of time traveling loops featuring a blonde waifu on her swimsuit. It’s her battle attire and it’s actually justified within story why it is that way, because plot that’s why.
What You’re Getting Into:
- A logical protagonist that knows what he’s doing making full use of the plot armor he’s been given. It’s a time traveling show where he can loops back in time when he’s dies and tries to redo things until a desired outcome is achieved.
- A blonde waifu with a belligerent and pleasing personality that can fight strong enough to protect your relationship.
- A decent attempt at character building for the side characters.
- A set of bland villains.
- A cool opening song that takes you back to the 90’s garage band feels.
Warning: Spoilers below with some links featuring a few fight scenes as examples.
Plot:
Shinpei Ajiro comes back to Hitogashima island after hearing about Ushio’s death to attend her funeral. The news of Ushio’s autopsy findings revealed she was strangled to death and kept a secret from the public. This led him to a rabbit hole all the way towards the mysteries kept within the island.
Shinpei is a believable protagonist framed as a logical character and driver of the story. How he reacts to reliving the experience after death, experimenting with his circumstances, and understanding his limitations within the confines of the story was realistic.
The first instance of reliving the same scenario after death is getting a feeling of déjà vu to which a rational person would dismiss until they start recalling the events that led them up to the point of return. It’s Shinpei’s reaction to the supernatural circumstance that he’s in and his innate deductive mind made part of the show good.
Ushio being the second lead stood out as a character enough to make her suited to even be the lead. As a character following the strong willed but clumsy girl trope, the story was able to give justice to her as a character driving her own part of the story told from her perspective. True to herself and her drive to take initiative to do what is right, she is your standard shounen protagonist in a girl’s skin.
As far as character development for everyone else goes, the show gives a fair amount of screen time for all of its cast. Each character had enough screen time to showcase what motivates them and their role within the story. Though some had less to work with to be more than a side character. Are the antagonists good? An antagonist is only good when their motivations to be who they are become believable and relatable.
We do see some backstories here and there to trigger some heartstrings but it didn’t feel like they were natural. Going into specific details would cause major spoilers but I would sum up the existence of the antagonists as just monsters filling a role for the hero to vanquish. The show has an answer for how they exist in the story but it does a poor job expounding their motivations towards their respective end goals.
The villain reveal and their motivations just a few episodes before the end probably killed the momentum built. The pitfall was building around suspense against a menacing enemy lurking within the shadows. Once the shadows became unmasked and their motivations clear, the viewing experience just went downhill from there for me.
I already know there’s going to be a good ending in the show but at least making the monster they have to fight be more ominous until the end would have been a worthwhile viewing experience.
The extermination of humanity and the pursuit of returning to the void called home. These are things that have been brushed off lightly when the villain expounds their why and it just ends up falling short because these are just too grand to even be considered relatable.
The shows monsters fail to contrast Shinpei because their values and objectives within the confines of the story don’t naturally antagonize one another. It just felt more like accidental enemies.
Animation and Music:
I didn’t have high expectations for the show’s animation when it comes to the fight scenes but some moments were well animated. You can see some shots employing different angles and perspective while conveying the momentum.
Some fights came off bland because some frames were animated with small skips when conveying movement. This happens when there are more than one directors working on the show, some shortcuts were necessary to save time, and skill of the animators working on that specific episode.
Conclusions:
Summer Time Rendering is a good show with a few points above average. This show would have hovered to an 3.5/5 to 4/5 range if it worked on its villains better but it was ok overall. If time travel, fantasy and suspense are your thing, it’s a decent watch.
